Farmers’ awareness level on the effect of parthenium weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) on agricultural production and its control in Nyando division, Kenya

Parthenium hysterophorus L. is an Invasive Alien \nSpecies (IAS) that poses threat to agricultural \nproduction. The aim of this study was to assess the \nlevel of awareness of the effect of parthenium weed \non agricultural production and ways through which \nparthenium is controlled in Nyando division. The \nresearch was carried by interviewing 120 farm \nhousehold heads using purposive sampling \ntechnique. This study established that majority of \nthe respondents were unaware that parthenium \ninterfered with milk production (95.0 %), livestock \nhealth (78.4 %) and crop yield (53.3 %). On the \nother hand, 63.3 % respondents were aware that \nparthenium lowered pasture availability. Physical \nmethods (98.3 %) were majorly used to control \nparthenium as compared to chemical (1.7 %). This \nstudy established that, the ill-effects of parthenium \nweed on agricultural production were not directly \nassociated to parthenium invasion. Therefore this \nresearch recommends that awareness creation \ncampaigns on the adverse effects of parthenium \nweed on agricultural production and its control \nshould be undertaken urgently. Similarly, integrated \ncontrol methods should be adopted for effective \nmanagement of parthenium weed